Atos hosts efficiency ‘hackathon’ for EDF Energy

Atos, a leader in digital services, is supporting EDF Energy’s innovative drive to develop new products by hosting a one-day ‘hackathon’.

Within Atos’ Business Technology Innovation Centre, the energy company teamed up with engineers, data scientists and digital consultants from both Atos and Samsung to assess energy efficiency and smart homes.

Hackathons started in the late 1990s and are traditionally where computer programmers collaborate on software projects over a short intensive period.

Charles Delalonde, head of digital innovation at EDF Energy’s UK R&D Centre, said: “By holding events such as these we hope to investigate key issues in the energy sector, transform ideas to prototypes and enable the cross-pollination of ideas and expertise across industries.”

Various real business-case briefs were set and the mixed company teams had just six hours to deliver mock-ups, wireframes and prototypes on topics including energy efficiency, smart thermostats and in-home displays.

The ideas ranged from ‘Energy Hero’, a game-style app where the user progresses through levels by making real energy efficiency improvements to ‘Neighbourhood Watts’, an app created to encourage consumers to make energy donations to others in their community based on energy savings made in their own home.

“All teams have really grasped what we are looking for in terms of using technology and big data to create customer-centric products,” Charles added.

“The breadth of ideas shows how events like these can inspire engineers beyond daily constraints to come up with something truly innovative.”

Rob Price, head of digital at Atos said: “For me, the value of the hackathon is in the fusion of business concepts and consumer services, backed by real data. Bringing together both the concept and analytics in this sort of environment breeds ideas that are both practical and innovative. In this time of consumer power this can be bring real benefits to a business.”

EDF Energy R&D Centre is using other innovative ways to reach out to consumers, and has partnered with IC Tomorrow to launch a competition based on the start-up community. The competition is looking to encourage digital innovation in home energy data applications using consumer devised such as phones, tablets and smart TVs and is open to start-ups and SMEs. More information can be found here: https://ictomorrow.innovateuk.org/web/connected-cities-innovation-contest/edf-energy

About Atos

Atos SE (Societas Europaea) is a leader in digital services with 2013 pro forma annual revenue of €10 billion and 86,000 employees in 66 countries. Serving a global client base, the Group provides Consulting & Systems Integration services, Managed Services & BPO, Cloud operations, Big Data & Security solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry. With its deep technology expertise and industry knowledge, the Group works with clients across different business sectors: Defence, Financial Services, Health, Manufacturing, Media & Utilities, Public Sector, Retail, Telecommunications and Transportation.

Atos is focused on business technology that powers progress and helps organizations to create their firm of the future. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and is listed on the Euronext Paris market. Atos operates under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting, Atos Worldgrid, Bull, Canopy, and Worldline. For more information, visit: https://atos.net/en-gb

About EDF Energy

EDF Energy is one of the UK’s largest energy companies and the largest producer of low-carbon electricity, producing around one-fifth of the nation’s electricity from its nuclear power stations, wind farms, coal and gas power stations and combined heat and power plants. The company supplies gas and electricity to 6 million business and residential customer accounts and is the biggest supplier of electricity by volume in Great Britain.

EDF Energy’s safe and secure operation of its eight existing nuclear power stations at sites across the country makes it the UK’s largest generator of low carbon electricity. EDF Energy is also leading the UK’s nuclear renaissance and has published plans to build four new nuclear plants, subject to the right investment framework.

These new plants could generate enough low carbon electricity for about 40% of Britain’s homes. They would make an important contribution to the UK’s future needs for clean, secure and affordable energy. The project is already creating business and job opportunities for British companies and workers.

Through Our Better Energy Ambitions, EDF Energy has developed one of the biggest environmental and social programmes of any British energy company.

In 2014 EDF Energy received seven ‘Big Ticks’ in the Business in the Community (BITC) Responsible Business Awards. In 2013 EDF Energy received the Environmental Leadership for Behavioural Change Award in the national Environment and Energy Awards and was highly commended in the first ever pan European Corporate Social Responsibility Awards scheme for its Sustainable Schools programme – the Pod.

EDF Energy is part of EDF Group, one of Europe’s largest power companies. The company employs around 15,000 people at locations across the UK.

To find out more about the UK’s energy challenges look at www.edfenergy.com/energyfuture/